The Ligonians beam over with a red carpet, which is rolled out before Lutan himself beams over. Picard greets him, and Lutan introduces his secondary Hagon. Picard then introduces his crew. Lutan is intrigued that a woman, Natasha Yar, is in charge of security on the Enterprise. Hagon approaches Picard with a sample of the vaccine, and brushes Yar out of the way when she tries to take it from him. Yar then throws Hagon to the ground before inspecting the vaccine and giving it to Picard. Troi tells him not to apologize as they would see this as a sign of weakness. Picard invites the Ligonians to the observation lounge.

"You can create people? Without a soul?"

In the lounge, Picard presents Lutan with a 13th century statue of a horse from China's Sung Dynasty. Lutan makes a speech praising Picard and saying he hopes their two peoples can become friends. He tells Picard that on Ligon, the women own all the land and wealth, but apart from that they are subservient to the men. He then asks to see the holodeck, and specifically requests Yar to show it to him. She brings him and Hagon there and shows them an aikido training holoprogram. Lutan tells Yar that he is very impressed by her. They return to the cargo deck and prepare to leave. Lutan goes to shake Yar's hand, but then grabs her and forcefully beams her down to Ligon.

Picard orders a red alert and tries to contact Lutan through Ligon's orbital control station, but he doesn't respond. He then orders a display blast of photon torpedoes 1,000 meters above the planet's surface. Troi advises the captain that she sensed avarice and ambition from Lutan. Data comments that the Ligonians value patience and that perhaps they should wait and see if Lutan contacts them.

Lutan kidnaps Tasha

Later, Dr. Crusher visits the captain in his ready room and tells him that the vaccine can't be replicated – only the original will work. She also asks him to allow her son Wesley to come on to the bridge. Picard relents and goes out onto the bridge and asks him to come out from the bridge's turbolift and to sit at the operations officer station. Data is ready with his briefing on the Ligonians. He tells Picard that they live by a strict code of honor and that what Lutan has done is similar to what Native Americans called "counting coup". In this case, Lutan's abduction of Yar was a sign of his heroism. Since Yar was the security chief, she was the riskiest target to capture and thus carried the most prestige.

Lutan hails them and Troi and Riker advise Picard that he ask for Yar back. Although he's not happy about it, Picard agrees and asks Lutan to return Yar. Lutan invites them down to the planet. Riker is persuaded to allow Picard down to the planet, as a visiting leader becomes an honored guest and cannot be harmed. Riker jokingly warns Picard that if he gets hurt, he will put the captain on report.

Picard and Troi beam down and Lutan introduces them to Yareena, his "first one". Picard asks to see Yar, and when she is brought out she tells him that she's all right. Lutan says she will be returned at a banquet in their honor tonight. At the banquet, Picard makes a speech about Lutan and his honor and asks for Yar back. However, Lutan refuses, saying he wants Yar as his first one. This outrages both Picard and Yareena, who challenges Yar to a fight to the death. If she doesn't fight, Lutan won't give them the vaccine. Later Picard and Troi come to visit Yar in her room, where she admits that she finds Lutan attractive. She is confident that she can win, and Troi agrees, saying that the odds are in her favor.

Back on the Enterprise, a message is received from Starbase 14, saying that the plague has worsened and that millions could die without the vaccine.

Picard is not happy with Yar having to fight and he goes to reason with Lutan. He finds out that Lutan needs Yareena's money and land if he is to stay in power. If she dies, he gets her money, so he's in a win-win situation.

"The truth is I will kill you if I can. And believe me, I can!"

Data visits Geordi La Forge in his quarters while he shaves with a razor and tries to tell him a joke, but Data still doesn't understand humor. Then they are ordered to beam down to the surface, where they meet Picard, who orders them to examine the weapons on display, as they won't know which is to be used until just before the fight. Yareena comes to see Yar at her request. Yar tries to talk her out of fighting but Yareena won't budge. She tells this to Picard, as Data and La Forge return with their report on the weapons, which are very sharp and poison tipped. Hagon arrives with the weapon to be used – a spiked metal ball on a glove, called a glavin.

Data beams back to the Enterprise to let Riker know what the captain is planning. Meanwhile down on the surface, Picard, Troi, La Forge and Yar enter the arena. The fight starts and Yar dodges and parries Yareena's attacks. Then Yareena's glove hits an electrified pole and the glove flies off and hits a spectator. The spikes cut him and he is dead in seconds. The fight resumes and eventually Yar bests Yareena and dives on her. They are both beamed up to the Enterprise.

A daring escape

Lutan is happy with the outcome and allows medical teams from the Enterprise to beam down to get the vaccine. Then Picard orders the away team to be beamed up, along with Lutan and Hagon. They are brought to the observation lounge, where Yareena is alive, resuscitated by Dr. Crusher. Since Yareena technically died, her marriage to Lutan is over, but she still has her wealth so she selects Hagon as her new first one. He now has all Yareena's wealth and power. She asks Lutan to be her second one and he accepts. With the vaccine secured, the Enterprise warps away for Styris IV.

"Lutan is such... such a basic male image and having him say he wants you..."
"Well, yes of course, it made me feel good when he... Troi, I'm your friend and you tricked me!"

- Deanna Troi and Tasha Yar

"We're all being manipulated, lieutenant. Myself most of all."

- Picard, to Tasha Yar

"Includling" the kiddlies! Now, see that's funny!"

- La Forge, to Data after his tongue slipped while telling an old and unfunny joke

"For example, what Lutan did is similar to what certain American Indians once did, called 'counting coup'. That is from an obscure language known as French. Counting coup..."
"Mr. Data, the French language for centuries on Earth represented civilization!"

- Data and Picard

"By our standard, the customs here - their code of honor - is the same kind of pompous, strutting charade that endangered our own species a few centuries ago. We evolved out of it because no one tried to impose their own set of... I'm sorry, this is becoming a speech."
"You're the captain, sir, you're entitled."
"Hmm. I'm not entitled to ramble on about something everyone knows. Carry on."

- Troi and Picard, during an impromptu lecture to Data on the Prime Directive

"Move!"

- Riker, ordering Dr. Crusher to treat Yareena before she and Yar have finished materializing on the transporter pad

"She is not dead!"

- Lutan, seeing Yareena alive and well in the Enterprise-D's conference lounge

"These I understand."

- Yar, examining the combat weapons

"As you can see, captain, you may excel in technology, but not in civilized behavior."

- Hagon

"What? Wesley?""Yeah. Wesley had been manning that station for me. I forgot.""Well, thanks again for manning one of our bridge stations, Wesley. We'll see that you get another chance.""Yes, sir."

- Picard, Riker, and Wesley

"Damn. Where are the calluses we doctors are supposed to grow over our feelings?""Perhaps the good ones never get them."

Katharyn Powers would later be responsible for the very similar Stargate SG-1 Season One episode "Emancipation". Both episodes feature a female officer being abducted and later participating in a fight to the death which both parties survive. Both episodes were also widely panned.

An original story concept by Powers and Baron called the Ligonians Tellisians, a reptilian species with a culture similar to the Japanese samurai and a warrior caste called the Kadim. (Creating the Next Generation: The Conception and Creation of a Phenomenon, p.39) This story concept also named the planet Ligon II Tellis and Lutan was the captain of a Tellisian ship. He met the Enterprise-D crew on a shore leave planet where ritual fightings were held and kidnapped Tasha on this planet where she had a fight with Lutan's son. The concept also featured a reference to James T. Kirk who once fought against Lutan's grandfather. Yareena's uncle, the king, was poisoned by Lutan and the away team of the Enterprise-D was imprisoned. In this prison they met the Tellisian Hinun, a nephew of Lutan who assisted in their escape. (Creating the Next Generation: The Conception and Creation of a Phenomenon, p. 76-78)

Doctor Crusher is seen wearing an antiquated wristwatch when she is reviving Yareena in the transporter room.

The ivory-like sticks the Ligonians use to show approval or to applaud are later seen again in "Frame of Mind", where an illusory Tilonian inmate plays with them.

Characteristic white lamps, consisting of several tubes in different shapes are seen on Ligon II for the first time. They later re-appear on many planets, like on Angel I, Risa, Cardassia and the first Founders' homeworld.

In this episode, the floor of the holodeck is not yet covered by the familiar pattern of yellow stripes on black background; instead, the floor is covered by grey carpet.

Special care was taken to include a Ligonian logo into many set pieces. The hexagonal shape consisting of three diagonal stripes and a small circle is seen on walls, doors, the vaccine box and the weapon boxes. The hexagonal shape is also echoed in the shape of doors, windows and the weapon wall in the large open courtyard.

Jonathan Frakes referred to the episode as a "racist piece of shit" [3]. At a 2007 science fiction convention in Toronto, Canada, he told the audience, "The worst and most embarrassing and one that even Gene would have been embarrassed by was that horrible racist episode from the first season... Code of Honor, oh my God in heaven!" [4]

In a 2012 interview with TrekMovie.com, Brent Spiner recalled, "It ["Code of Honor"] was just a racist episode. Maybe not intentionally but it felt that way and looked that way. It was the third episode so it was fortuitous that we did our worst that early on and it never got quite that bad again." [5]

According to Wil Wheaton, 'if the cast wasn't arbitrarily decided to be African-American,' the idea of the episode being racist or non-racist wouldn't have been an issue. [6]

Star Trek: Voyager actor Garrett Wang said this episode "stinks" to which LeVar Burton agreed, adding "without question", at a Star Trek panel at DragonCon 2010. [7] Furthermore, Wang attributed his viewing of the episode as the reason why he ended up landing the role of Harry Kim stating that had he watched another episode of TNG he would have been "too nervous" during his audition as he would have ended up being a big fan of the show: "So three times I tried watching [the series] and I realised God was telling me 'Do not watch Star Trek: The Next Generation'." [8]

At the 2013 Toronto Comic Con's "An Evening With the Cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation", Michael Dorn referred to this episode as "the worst episode of Star Trek ever filmed" to agreement from the rest of the cast and the crowd. [9]

The novel Dark Mirror establishes that in the mirror universe, when the ISS Enterprise-D arrived at Ligonia and the Ligonians tried to make the Enterprise-D crew follow their rituals, they simply sterilized the planet's southern continent which forced the Ligonians into cooperating with the Empire's demands.